Leverkusen (dpa) – Lukas Hradecky was able to endure the fact that he was in a small shooting gallery for most of the season for a top club given the offensive spectacle of his front men.
“As long as they make four up front, it doesn’t matter whether you concede one or two at the back,” the goalkeeper of Bundesliga soccer club Bayer Leverkusen said recently. Due to the great injury misery, this has completely turned around. And the new situation with fewer goals in front and behind is much harder to bear for the Finn. “You can’t get into the Champions League without scoring goals,” Hradecky warned after the 0-1 draw against RB Leipzig and losing third place to the Saxons: “Four times 0-0 won’t be enough.”
Bayer have been without a goal for two and a half games and the Werkself had only failed to score twice up until matchday 28. But the failures, especially of offensive all-rounder Florian Wirtz, have caused a small break. “We’re used to having five, six, seven, eight chances to score,” said coach Gerardo Seoane. “But that’s not possible at the moment. It’s not the moment to play so offensively against such an opponent.”
Against RB, the best team of the second half of the season, Seoane had eight mostly defensive players in the starting XI. This, he assured, was more due to the latter in the mix of situation and opponent. Next week at the bottom of the table SpVgg Greuther Fürth, which Bayer could finally shoot back into the 2nd division, things should look different again. “Of course we want to offer a lot more offensively,” explained the coach.
That has to be the case, demands Hradecky. One thing is clear: Nobody in Leverkusen really wants to get involved in a Champions League final against Freiburg, who are just one point behind. “We’re usually attacking, that’s Bayer Leverkusen,” said the Finn. “You haven’t seen enough of that in the last two or three games.”
Which, the captain suggested, could also be a matter of attitude. “Today I wasn’t quite happy with the tension and the attitude,” said the 32-year-old: “Everyone has to ask themselves. Do we want to play the Champions League? Everyone can play football well enough and we actually work well as a team.” That’s why it’s clear to Hradecky: “There can be no more excuses.” Not even the many failures.